


Set the Stage!

by krispykreeper



Series: DSMP but they're theatre kids [2]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Theatre, Gen, Rated T for TommyInnit, The Author Regrets Everything, i tried and failed ngl, no beta we die like l'manberg, pls leave kudos im so gone, pspsps validation cmere pls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 07:09:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27169796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/krispykreeper/pseuds/krispykreeper
Summary: The weeks leading up to the drama club's premiere of "The Election"
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Series: DSMP but they're theatre kids [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1983188
Comments: 32
Kudos: 438





	Set the Stage!

**Author's Note:**

> i burnt tf out when writing this. if the plot is messy im sorry but bon apetit children.

The material in Techno’s burgundy hoodie is currently contaminated by sparkles and absolutely drenched because apparently carrying the marketing team’s glitter-covered promotion items in the pouring rain is a bad idea. One of the main indicators was the fact that Techno was currently giving up his signature hoodie to hold the trifold which in turn was getting silver glitter glue all over it.

Honestly, it’s Wilbur’s fault he decided to sacrifice Techno for a few minutes of sleep. ‘A terrible choice really,’ Techno thought as he made a mental note to sic Tubbo and Tommy after him later, ‘There are three hundred sixty five days in a year, Wilbur. And you chose to sleep in on this one’.

He finally managed to haul his soaking ass all the way to the drama club’s main room, probably leaving a trail of water and mud behind him. He really didn’t want the cleaning crew to see that. The janitor already hates him and the DSMP after Sapnap and George caused an impromptu food fight in the cafeteria with the rest of the club. He made sure to take off his sneakers before going into the room.

“Techno you’re here! What took you?” The DSMP president asked as the drenched man entered the room. Man, Dream really needs to chill with this schedule, the buses haven’t even arrived yet. “I’m glad you’re here, we really need to start promot… why does the trifold look like that?”

“First off, I vote to boot loverboy out of the drama club for being an ass and leaving me to walk to school in the pouring rain and second I’m pretty sure we’re vetoing the trifold.” Techno says, gesturing to the soggy excuse of a display board he tossed on the floor.

Dream shakes his head and decides to text Skeppy, “BAD NEWS WE RAN INTO A PROBLEM WITH TUBBOS TRIFOLD, GET HERE QUICKLY” in caps because this is very urgent. “So far, we still need around 85 tickets to meet our budget goal. As soon as Tubbo, Skeppy and Tommy get here you four need to start boosting this play ten-fold.”

Speak of the devil, Skeppy, Tommy and Tubbo arrive on time, Tubbo’s eye twitching as they spot the soggy pile of silver glitter and soaked cardboard. Techno’s still pinning it on Wilbur and his lazy ass not getting out of bed on time. “Blade, did you really have to go and destroy my masterpiece?” Tubbo accuses and Techno can’t help but roll his eyes.

“Sorry, but it’s Wilbur’s fault. Did you and Tommy finish posters?” Techno asks as Skeppy helps him set up the ticket booth.

“Did we promote buying? Did we? Surely you’ve seen the flyers on every single stall of the restrooms? Hallways? Cafeteria? Did me and Tubbo promote the play? Did we?” Tommy cuts in, his voice raising with every word, and Techno’s starting to wonder if Tommy had his daily intake of Coca-Cola. No wonder Tommy has a thing for the dramatic arts; he's as dramatic as one can get.

“ –I’m here! What did I miss?” Wilbur pants as he arrives, his chest heaving. “Looks like you made it to school in one piece, Tech. I thought you were dying with those texts you sent me.” Then he eyes Techno’s sparkly soaking sweater which definitely wasn’t sparkly or soaking before and decides to shut up.

Techno takes off his hoodie and throws it onto his seat, “That’s right, quiet or you can kiss your role as President W. Soot goodbye.”

“Any suggestions for ticket selling and promoting?,” Dream pipes up from beside Wilbur.

“We were supposed to use the trifold, but since some person got it soaked we’re ditching it.”

“Tubbo, your idea was to get you and Toms to scream about revolutions and elections in the school hallways. I don’t know about you but I think it’s best that the rain soaked the board,”

“Well, you got any bright ideas, Mr. head-of-marketing?”

“I thought you’d never ask. Dream, get costumes, stage crew, tech booth and all running parties here in ten.”

* * *

Ten minutes later, most people required to pull Techno’s stunt off are gathered in the cafeteria-

“Hey, Sapnap, where’s George?”

-like I said, _most_.

“I’m not sure, my best bet is that he’s sleeping in,”

“This is the second time he’s done that.”

“Yeah, but at least Eret managed the costumes fine without him. Also don’t we need permission to pull off a stunt like this?”

“Nah, the teachers are fine with us pulling them out of class and lunch ladies are cool with us doing it here. So as long as we don’t run into the principal we’ll be fine.”

Dream pats Sapnap on the back and turns to survey the room, with him is stage crew (Sapnap, Karl and Punz), costumes (Eret and George, if he showed up), cast members (Wilbur, Tommy, Schlatt, Quackity, and Fundy) and Niki on makeup. Punz and Sapnap are currently setting up the election stand, Karl is hanging up blinds and shaders for atmosphere, Eret’s helping Quackity and Schlatt get into their suits without ripping them, Niki’s doing Wilbur’s makeup, Fundy’s with Tubbo doing who knows what and Tommy’s going over his lines.

Dream claps his hands to get everyone’s undivided attention, “Okay DSMP, everyone ready?”

“Yessir, the cast members are prepped and standing by,”

“Stage crew, everything set?”

“Yeah, election podium is ready,”

“Eret, since Sam’s running a bit late and Fundy’s on stage, you have lights,”

“Got it, Dream.”

“Alright get in your places. The rest of the school is arriving in 2 minutes.”

* * *

As students trickled down from their classes to the cafeteria from overhearing the announcement Phil made to “Come on down!”, they got a room with all tables pushed aside in favour of the, very weirdly dressed, classmates in the middle of the room. Dream gave the signal to Eret to dim the lights, and the stage was set for the five actors in the center.

Wilbur shows up on the podium, “With me in my hands is the results for the first official Manberg election. In fourth with 9% of the votes is COCONUT2020, in third place with 16% of the votes is SCHLATT2020, in second place with 30% of the votes is SWAG2020, that means the party in first place with 45% of the popular vote is POG2020!”

"WOOH! Wilbur, Wilbur we did it! We did it!” Tommy cheers.

“Tommy, Tommy calm, it’s not over yet,”

Wilbur begins, “Two nights ago on the night of the election after the announcement of SCHLATT2020 and COCONUT2020, Quackity made a deal with the leader of SCHLATT2020. Quackity said that no matter what happens he would pool SWAG’s votes with SCHLATT’s votes, meaning that the coalition government of SWAG2020 and SCHLATT2020 have won the election.”

Tommy sputters with surprise, “What do you mean Wilbur?”

Quackity grins shoves Tommy of the podium, “Get off this stage, Tommy, it isn’t yours anymore,”

Schlatt walks up onto the stage, the students looking curiously as he taps the mic, “Well, that was pretty easy,” his voice echoing and bouncing off the walls, “The day I said I was running for president, I said, ‘Things are going to change.’ I looked in the eyes of every citizen in L’manberg and I said, ‘You listen to me, things will be a lot different tomorrow… let’s start making it happen’.”

Tommy and Wilbur looked on with fear of what Schlatt would say next, “My first decree as the president, no EMPEROR of this GREAT COUNTRY! Is to REVOKE the citizenship of Wilbur Soot, and Tommyinnit, get them out of here!

“Tommy, Tommy! Tommy RUN! RUN!” Wilbur urgently pushes Tommy as they run through the cafeteria, Punz and Tubbo hot on their trail. Tommy and Wilbur shove open the doors and disappear out of sight. 

Eret flips the lights back on while Quackity steps off of the podium, “That was the preview for the drama club’s new production, The Election, the sequel to "The Revolution"! Be sure to catch us in 7 weeks on the 25th through 30st! Tickets are on sale in the drama room!”

The crowd disperses very quickly at that information, “Geez, when people in middle school said I wasn’t likeable they really weren’t joking.”

“Shush Q, I bet they just need to go back to their classes,”

“Eeh I don’t know about that, Niki, but sure we’ll go with that.”

* * *

Techno leans back into his chair, chugging the chocolate milk Wilbur offered him from the school’s vending machine. An apology gift for the soaked sweater. 

Skeppy’s with him too, spinning around in his chair and tossing a ball of crumpled paper in the air, “So do you think your trick will boost our sales, Tech?”

“I’m pretty sure, it’s the best marketing scheme this school has ever seen. I mean, previewing some of the play in the cafeteria? My genius scares me sometimes."

Little do they know that the peaceful silence of the drama room is about to end, because a stampede of students is about to come rolling in.

“Hey Techno?”

“Yeah,”

“Do you feel that shaking from the ground?”

“...Yeah,”

Techno and Skeppy hear the thundering footsteps of an unknown entity get louder and louder and Techno almost thinks an earthquake is about to hit. Then, all of a sudden, the door gets ripped open as the horde of their classmates peer into room 106.

’Okay, wow definitely wasn't expecting that,’ the duo thought simultaneously.

Techno and Skeppy have moments to react before everything goes to absolute hell. The students flock in like animals and go rampant in the classroom. Skeppy and Techno are barely holding down the fort because the lines are jam packed. Students holding out their money everywhere, pushing, screaming and even punching each other, Skeppy thought it looked like a scene straight out of “The Walking Dead”.

Heaps and heaps of money came rolling in, probably going way over the goal Dream set for them. Yes, this is considered good and business is indeed booming, but at what cost?

“Was this what you meant by and I quote ‘The best marketing scheme you’ll ever see’?!”

“Can it Skeppy! I didn’t think it’d work this well!”

“Clearly! Otherwise we wouldn’t be in this mess!”

“Just focus on your line!”

The duo can hardly hear each other over the shouting and shoving the customers were doing. It wasn’t long before their saving grace, Sam, Fundy’s partner in the tech booth, came and jumped into the third seat beside Skeppy. Thus becoming the third victim of the horde and their wrath.

Twenty minutes later, Sam, Techno and Skeppy manage to finish the lines, Skeppy coming out with a medium-sized bruise, Techno coming out with damaged glasses and Sam with a bleeding nose from an accidental punch thrown his way.

This was about the time when Phil, the supervisor of the drama club and TA, walked in and saw his friends looking exhausted and very dead, “What the fuck happened here?”

Sam was using his hand to stop the gushing blood from his nose, “The equivalent to the zombie apocalypse happened,”

Phil sighs, “And how did this exactly happen?”

“…”

“Sam.”

“Techno kind of pulled off this crazy promotion stunt in the cafeteria?”

“Are you kidding me?”

* * *

“You know, when Phil said that you three were tackled by a crowd I thought that was just a hyperbole.” Bad says as Niki offers Skeppy an ice pack for the bruise he was nursing on his shoulder. 

Techno, Sam and Skeppy are hanging out in the drama club’s main room with Eret, Bad, Dream and Niki. Eret’s going over designs for costumes, Dream is going over the team’s schedule while Bad and Niki are acting as Skeppy, Sam and Techno’s nurses.

Skeppy gladly accepts Niki’s ice pack, “Nah, not tackled, slaughtered is more like it. That crowd was crazy, they gave me this massive bruise on my shoulder!”

Sam discards the tissue Dream gave him, “That kid, what's their name again? oh yeah, Tyler. They know how to throw one heck of a punch. My head is still spinning.”

Techno winces as he inspects his cracked glasses, “At least you don’t have to go to the optometrist’s office for the fifth time in the last two months to fix your glasses. Dr. Chan is probably sick of seeing me,” he sighs and drops them on the side table to his right of the couch he was sitting on.

Dream turns his head towards the pink-haired-man, “Hey, at least we reached our goal?”

“If by ‘reached’ you mean ‘overshot and now stage crew has to fit in fifty more seats into the theatre’, then yes, we reached it.” Techno air quoted, his voice dryer than the desert.

Niki shrugs, “But we do have a lot of money for next year, plus this is the most money we’ve collected in our four years of doing drama.”

“Hello DSMP!” George yells as he enters the room, “What did I miss?”

Eret rolled her eyes at her friend, “I mean, you missed Skeppy, Techno and Sam get their shit absolutely rocked by a crowd but that’s about it.”

“Damn, that would’ve been fun, I’m guessing you didn’t record it,”

“Nope. Also, don’t skip out on another rehearsal you know it’s a pain to get everyone in costumes let alone by themselves,”

“Hey! It’s not my fault I set my alarm for 7:00 PM instead of AM!”

“You’re lying, it totally is your fault.” Quackity says as he walks in with the rest of the DSMP, “Just like it was when you left me hanging when we were doing the presidential rally!”

“Oh would you let that go, I stayed up all night fixing Tubbo’s revolutionary get up, it’s not my fault!”

Sapnap interrupted George and Quackity’s bickering, “Hey marketing team plus Sam, you guys took quite the beating,”

Skeppy scoffs, “Tell me about it. How did clean up go Sap?”

“Uh, we sort of ran into Scowler?” He replied with a worrying amount of uncertainty.

“And how did that go?”

“Well…”

* * *

When the four cast members in the hallway came back into the cafeteria, Sapnap cupped his hands over his mouth and yelled, “Alright DSMP, we got to clean up and leave before Scowler sees us. Everyone start rearranging the tables!”

With the crowd cleared out and gone, the DSMP got to work with clean up. Sapnap walked to the nearest table and lifted it to the middle, the others doing the same.

“Hey, Big Q? Where did Niki, Bad, Eret and Dream run off to?” Fundy questioned, looking for his peers.

“They got pinged by Phil, apparently marketing team and Sam got into some trouble with the crowd.” Quackity replied.

Cafeteria tables are a bit hard to lift up and on top of that, there’s still blinds and sheets blocking some lights that are still up.

“Hey Schlatt? Can you help Karl with the blinds, he probably needs the extra help to get this done quicker.”

“On it Sapnap.”

They make good progress with resetting the tables before the devil herself walks in, Ms. Cowler. No one in the school, even the snobby teacher’s pets, liked Ms. Cowler. She was rude, she was mean, she is exactly like the cartoons when the principal is evil or wicked and Sapnap was honestly convinced she was a witch with the way she was frowning. If there was an unspoken rule between everyone in the drama club it would be, “DO NOT RUN INTO SCOWLER WHEN PROMOTING.” in all caps, bolded and in bright, blood red. The reason being that Karl accidentally shot the prop cannon in her office when they were freshman and Scowler hasn’t let go of it for the entire time they’ve attended MC high.

“What are you doing here drama club? Aren’t you all supposed to be in class?”

“Uh, miss-” Sapnap starts but is cut off by the ripping of her notepad, “Skipping lessons and disrupting peers, all of you get detention for three days!”

“But-” Sapnap tries again to yet again be cut off, “Are you talking back to your superior, Nick?”

“No ma’am.” He sighs as he forlornly takes the note shoved into his hand.

“Good.”

As Scowler walks out Sapnap can visibly see his team release the breaths they were holding. “So detention for all of us, I guess.”

“Yeah, I can’t believe how long she can hold grudges for!” Karl scoffs, a bit salty that his mistake in 9th grade made his 12th grade self get into detention with his friends.

“Ugh Dream’s gonna be pissed when he hears this,” Sapnap laments, thinking of the director’s reaction to the entirety of stage crew, and the six cast members’ schedules being put on hold for three days.

‘Well, we better break the news to him, better for him to know sooner than later.”

* * *

“Scowler did WHAT?” Dream all but screeched from the couch he was sitting on.

“Yeah, she put us in detention for three days,” Sapnap said, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand

Techno sighed, “Oh my god.” The man started a new spreadsheet, this one containing the time the DSMP members were in detention and how long they’d be there. “Tell you guys what, sneak out every time Scowler sleeps, she does that when she puts on the cooking channel. Knocks her right out.”

“We could just actually knock her out?” Sapnap suggests.

“As much as I’d like that no, besides we can get Phil to bail you guys out if you get caught. We have 7 more weeks to get this play fully finished,” Techno replies, “I think it’ll be slow the first few weeks but as soon as you’re out of detention we’ll get back on track, it surely wasn’t as intense as her other ones.”

“Alright, well let’s head to the theatre and get to work while we can.”

* * *

After being put on hold for three days, play scheduling goes on as planned. The next 7 weeks of school leading up to the big day were hectic; between balancing school work, the play, and volunteering hours, Wilbur’s schedule is completely packed. The only free time he has is on the weekends, and even then, that’s spent on scripts and lines.

“Our nation's gone. Our nation's far behind us, Tommy - let's, let's blow that motherfucker, to smithereens! Let's blow the whole damn thing up!” Wilbur reads off the script, careful to not scare Phil’s customer’s away. Maybe Phil shouldn’t have taken up on DSMP’s offer for his coffee shop to become their hangout spot, but that’s his fault. Wilbur and Tommy are running through Wilbur’s breakdown and eventual spiral into madness.

“Will, are you- Wilbur, are you, are you thinking, are you- are you thinking-” Tommy stutters in disbelief.

“Tommy, I say if we can't have Manberg, no one. No one can have Manberg!” Wilbur reads briefly off of the script, opting to look at Tommy with crazed eyes.

“Wilbur... I think you're taking this…”

“Tommy, let’s be the villains!”

“You're being reckless, Wilbur. You're being reckless.”

“Tommy, but do you know what, you know what, in a time like this when a man has nothing to lose, do you know what that means?”

“What are you saying?”

“It means we can do what we want! We have a man on our side, who literally rigged our nation with TNT - we can do the same to them! We can rig this festival with TNT, we can kill them all, Tommy.”

“No no no! Stop it alright!” Tommy says as he lightly taps Wilbur on the face imitating the slap he was supposed to do, “This isn't the right thing to do, this isn't the moral thing to do. You're being- What's the point in doing anything… if you've lost all hope?”

Phil claps his hands after they finish the scene, “Good job, Tommy you’ve really improved!”

Tommy responds with an endearing smile, “Am I good or what?” he infers cockily. His confidence level is in outer space.

“Certainly better than in freshman year.” Wilbur says as he comes over to ruffle the younger’s hair.

“Hey!” the blonde exclaims, trying to get his pseudo-brother’s hands out of his hair.

* * *

Sapnap and his gang of uncoordinated, lazy and constantly complaining stage crew students do a mind-blowing job on the set each year, it's certainly nothing out of the ordinary but it amazes George nevertheless.

Currently, there’s a well painted ravine, Pogtopia, where almost half of the scenes happen in, decorated with boulders and hanging lanterns. Quackity completed the props in time for the play and the Manberg and forest backdrops are monitored by Punz. 

George was on his way to meet up with Eret and go over some designs for Techno, who still didn’t have a costume but they were aiming for a regal type vibe for his character.

“Hey George!” His friend greets him as George enters the backstage, “So I was thinking, because we don’t exactly have royal robes for Techno, we should head down into the basement to search for some.” Eret offers.

“Sure, just let me text Dream so he doesn’t think we’re missing,” George replies, “Alright, done let’s go.”

The duo makes their way down to the school's basement, “Shit dude, do they ever clean this up?!” Eret exclaims as they sneeze for the fifth time in the last ten minutes.

They’re looking through the racks of old clothes for a cape for Techno and so far they’ve found nothing.

“Hey Eret! Come look at this!” George says as he pulls out a large red cape with white fur on top.

“Where’d you find this?”

“On that rack over there! Do you think this is regal enough for Techno’s character?”

“Absolutely, hopefully it fits him!” Eret replies as she makes her way up the stairs, George following close after.

Turns out it did fit Techno, like a glove actually, though a bit dusty, it’s nothing a toss in a full bathtub can't fix.

The two costume designers high five each other, their last costume of senior year completed and their job finished.

* * *

The final song comes to a close and the lights dim, courtesy of Fundy on lighting, to a round of applause from the audience, and curtains draw close after the entire cast, crew, and orchestra take a full ninety-degree bow.

Tommy sighs in content, sticking the cool bottle of water on his forehead as he heads backstage to take a rest. The dressing rooms are filled, and he can hear George screaming at Schlatt because he ripped his suit through the back. Schlatt yells back, and Wilbur grunts as Quackity accidentally knocks over a table when he takes his tie off. Tommy doesn't even know how he did it, and he’s not planning to ask either. Tubbo sits beside him and leans their head on his shoulder. Tommy smiled.

Though the dramatic arts is chaotic and stressful, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Curtains Closed.

**Author's Note:**

> pls leave comments my burnt out soul needs them.


End file.
